Spire and MungoPark, The problem you're both having is probably not related to the type of ground plane, but as bob says, to the shadow cameras. Here's some information from one of my product Help Files ----------------------------------- 'A shadow camera shows you what the light 'sees', and the shadow you get in a render will be made based upon this view. The general rule with shadow cams is to zoom in on your figure in the shadow cam view, and center it in the frame. There are 2 ways to adjust the shadow cam. One is to use the dials on the camera itself. The other is to first select the camera view, then select the light and use it's dials. Adjusting the light's parameters will change the shadow cam view, and the shadow quality in the final render. Try this experiment. Go to the camera menu below the document window, and select the correct shadow camera (the one for the light casting the main shadow). You will see a highly distorted view of your scene. Use the zoom and pan dials to center the main figure in the scene and fill the frame with it. Then go back to your main view and render the scene. You'll notice an immediate difference in the shadows. They become much crisper and more detailed' ----------------------------------- So, to cut it short, you should go to the shadow cam for your main light, then frame the figure or the part of the scene you're actually rendering. The shadows will improve immensely, and they'll be joined to the feet. mac